Greenwood Yard
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The Greenwood Yard (also known as the Greenwood Complex) is a
rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...
with support buildings that service subway vehicles on
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a subway line in the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It has 31 stations and is in length. It opened on February 26, 1966, and extensions at both ends were completed in 1968 a ...
of the
Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal transport, multimodal rail network consisting of three Pa ...
. Greenwood is one of two subway yards on Line 2, the other being the much smaller Keele Subway Yard.


Site

Spanning , the Greenwood Yard is located at 400 Greenwood Avenue, on the west side of Greenwood south of
Danforth Avenue Danforth Avenue (informally also known as the Danforth) and Danforth Road are two historically-related arterial streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Danforth ''Avenue'' is an east-west street that begins in Old Toronto at the Prince Edward ...
. The site is bordered on the west, south and east sides by residential areas, and on the south side by a railway line. The yard contains 5 buildings, two of which are the General Overhaul and Repair Shop (a.k.a. Greenwood Shop) with a floor space of , and the carhouse for inspection, minor repairs and washing. The Greenwood Shop has specialized shops for heavy overhauls of subway cars and components as well as stores. The Greenwood Shop is operationally separate from the carhouse servicing the Bloor–Danforth subway fleet. When it opened, the yard had a storage capacity for 244 subway cars. The yard currently has a 328-car storage capacity. The Greenwood Yard is connected to the Bloor–Danforth line by a multi-level wye between Donlands and Greenwood stations; the wye allows both east- and westbound mainline trains access to the yard. The arrangement allows for trains to be added into or taken out of service with minimum disruption to ongoing operations.


Current operations

Greenwood Yard is home to approximately half the Commission's fleet of trains and work cars. The yard regularly houses the majority of the fleet of T1 subway cars and all Line 2 trains overnight. Greenwood Yard provides storage, inspection and running maintenance for the Line 2 revenue fleet, and contains major overhaul and repair shops for the entire subway fleet. Greenwood Yard is also a centre for the servicing and operation of workcars used by the Track and Structure Department to repair and maintain the entire subway system. The Greenwood Yard also performs the heavy maintenance on the ICTS cars from
Line 3 Scarborough Line 3 Scarborough (originally known as the Scarborough RT or SRT) is a light rapid transit line that is part of the Toronto subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The line runs entirely within the suburban district of Scarborough, encompas ...
, that the
McCowan Yard McCowan Yard is a rail yard on the Toronto Transit Commission's (TTC's) Line 3 Scarborough of the Toronto subway system. The yard is situated on a site located east of McCowan Station, the eastern terminal of the line. The yard's street entrance ...
cannot handle. Because the
gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...
and technology differences between lines 2 and 3, ICTS cars must be transported by truck to Greenwood for major maintenance work. Greenwood Yard, like other active
Toronto Transit Commission The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
yards, operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Yard activity is minimal during the peak service periods when many trains are in revenue service. The yard is particularly busy in the evening and early morning hours to service and maintain the subway fleet after which the trains are put into position to go into service in the morning.


History

Prior to construction, most of the yard site used to be a clay quarry that later became Harper's Dump, Toronto's main landfill in the 1930s. The site also contained some residences which were demolished. In May 1965, the Greenwood Yard was put into partial service for some repair work. Heavy maintenance of subway bogies was transferred from the
Hillcrest Complex Hillcrest Complex is the Toronto Transit Commission's largest facility and is responsible for most of the maintenance work on the system's surface vehicles, including heavy overhauls, repairs and repainting. It is located adjacent to the intersec ...
to Greenwood. On February 26, 1966, the yard went into full service with the opening of
Line 2 Bloor–Danforth Line 2 Bloor–Danforth is a subway line in the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It has 31 stations and is in length. It opened on February 26, 1966, and extensions at both ends were completed in 1968 a ...
. When it opened, the yard had a railway siding and some four
rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...
,
dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...
( and )
track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...
for the delivery of subway cars from the manufacturer. However, circa 2013, the TTC removed the standard gauge track to make more room for subway car storage. As of 2016, the standard gauge siding had been severed from both the yard and the railway mainline. Closeup of the former standard gauge siding between the yard and the railway mainline.


Future

Plans for the current yard to be used for the Relief Line involved T1 cars being moved to the new Kipling Yard.


References


External links

* * - 2015 video published by TTC {{Toronto Transit Commission Rail yards in Toronto Transport infrastructure completed in 1965 Toronto rapid transit 1965 establishments in Canada